Website Knows What You've Illegally Downloaded

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A new website that keeps track of everything you download from
file-sharing sites could spell trouble for the scores of people
who steal copyrighted music and movies.

The site, Youhavedownloaded.com, does exactly what its name
implies: It keeps a huge database of millions of media files that
have been downloaded to tens of millions of Internet Protocol
[IP] addresses from file-sharing websites and services such as
BitTorrent. When you visit the site, it automatically scans
your IP address and reveals what, if any, files you've
downloaded.

To date, Youhavedownloaded has a database of more 52,286,000
users and 110,800 torrents made up of 1,918,000 individual files.
A glance at the homepage shows a small sample of what people have
downloaded, including the film "Spy Kids 4," the AMC show "The
Walking Dead" and season four of FX's "Sons of Anarchy."

The site was built as a proof-of-concept, Suren Ter-Saakov, one
of its founders, told noted cybersecurity researcher
Brian Krebs. As such, it stops short of parsing through
"dynamic" IP addresses, which change and can be used to conceal
one's online activities. The site's servers don't store
timestamps or gather personally identifiable details either.

Despite its limitations and innocent nature,
Youhavedownloaded.com still has the capability to scare — or
shame — people into thinking before they blindly download pirated
material.

Ter-Saakov said he received an email from someone who asked to
have his information taken down "because he was
downloading porn and was afraid his parents would be able to
see what kind of files he downloaded."

Beyond calling people out, Krebs said the site highlights
something that's important but often overlooked among casual
Internet users, which is that file-trading networks "are an
extremely common and easy way to spread malicious software."

Skipping the ethical argument about downloading copyrighted
material, if you're on a file-sharing site, be very cautious
about what you download. There is no guarantee the song or TV
show you think you're getting is what it claims to be. Make sure
your computer is outfitted with anti-virus software, and to
protect
yourself even further, run all downloads through a malware-
scanning program.